Alice tests out Akira's theory by carrying out an experiment, with an unexpected result.
"You-what?! Alice, you can be really dense, you know." Akira couldn't quite figure if Alice was joking or not. That, and he couldn't figure why she and Ryo were here, in the Shiomi Seminar. Since their bond as the "lab coat trio" started, Alice and Ryo would just drop by at the seminar for no reason at all.
"I'm being serious!" Alice said, pouting. "If you're such a smart guy, tell me why no one is asking me out!"
"It doesn't take a genius to figure that out!" Akira said. He then pointed an accusing finger at Ryo, who seemed to be looking over the spices Akira had laid out on a table of the room. "It's because of Kurokiba, of course! Who's gonna come up and confess to a girl who's attached to the hip to some brooding, six-foot-tall guy? And stop snooping on my secret spice blends, Kurokiba."
Alice looked completely surprised, as if what Akira said had never dawned on her. "So, are they more likely to confess if Ryo was like, five feet tall instead?'
"No, that's not the-ugh," Akira groaned, frustrated at how dense Alice could be despite being such an acclaimed molecular gastronomist. "You know what, if you wanna get confessed to so badly, just order Kurokiba to confess to you already!"
"Oh, alright," Alice said, turning to Ryo. "Ryo, confess your feelings to me."
Ryo didn't even look up from the spice table, trying to read Akira's barely legible handwriting on his recipes. "That's beyond the scope of my duties as your aide, miss," he said.
Coward! Akira silently mouthed to Ryo, who wasn't even looking at him. "God, you two are ridiculous. Why is everyone in this damn school so dense?!" Akira said, shaking his head. "And stop trying to snoop on my spice blends!"
That day in school was anything but ordinary. Ryo and Alice arrived together at the lecture hall, as was usual. But Alice headed straight for the front row of seats, and then Ryo headed onto the very back.
There was an audible gasp from the class. Since middle school, the two have sat together at each and every class and lecture. Ryo could see their classmates whispering to each other, as he just pulled out a book and some earphones to drown everyone else out.
"Ryo! We're gonna be holding an experiment tomorrow," Ryo remembered what Alice told him, the day before. "To test if Akira's theory that no one confesses to me because of you is true, you're going to stay away from me the entire day tomorrow."
Ryo wasn't as dense as Alice, and knew for certain that some guys didn't dare approach her because of him. Why Alice needed to test that was ridiculous, in his opinion. "We go to the same school and same classes, Miss," he said. "Hard to stay away from you in those cases."
"Just make sure you're like, thirty feet away from me or something," Alice said, looking thoughtful. "We're not gonna sit together in class or take breaks together. May as well go home separately."
"...Fine," Ryo said. "...You're going to regret this, miss."
"Excuse me?" Alice put a hand on her hip. "What exactly do you mean by that?"
"No one's gonna carry your bags," Ryo said, and started going on as if he was ticking off a list in his head. "No one's gonna take down lecture notes for you. No one's gonna buy your snack from the cafeteria. No one's gonna peel your apples for you-"
"I-I can do all those fine by myself, Ryo! You just watch!"
"Sure. Don't go crying to me before the day is over, miss."
Ryo looked up from his textbook, which he was barely reading anyway-he often held it and left it open so that people would take it as a sign not to talk to him. Alice participated in the lecture, chirping in as she always did. No one had taken the seat next to her.
"...Alice? Did you and Kurokiba get into a fight or something?"
Finally, in the second class, a couple of girls decided to sit next to Alice. They weren't guys, but it was a start. They looked quite concerned.
Alice looked thoughtful, pondering their question. Telling them that this was an experiment defeats the entire purpose of the experiment. "Yeah, I've had it with him," Alice said. "We're like, done. We're through. We're over."
Her response was met by gasps, not just from the girls, but from everyone around them who was more or less eavesdropping, curious about this development. "He's always beating me," Alice said, adding more to the story. "And then he yells at me when he's mad. Totally rude. I've had it with him."
"Oh my...! Who knew Kurokiba could be so violent to you...!"
"I can hear you from here, Miss Alice," Ryo said, from the very back of the room. He was going to simply ignore Alice today, but she was totally giving everyone the wrong idea, probably thinking he physically beats her-she meant their food battles, but no one else knew that. "Stop giving everyone the wrong idea."
"I-I told you not to talk to me!" Alice said, looking flustered and shocked at the same time that Ryo could hear her from that far. "We're through, Ryo!" she said, pointing a finger at him. "Stay in your lane!"
Ryo just sighed. Way to be overdramatic. Today is gonna be a long day.
Of course, Ryo thought, there's no way Alice is going to get the "confession" she wants within the day, as it was only one day. But she did get surrounded by a lot more people. She took her lunch with some curious classmates. When she went to the library during break time, some guys sat beside her, and one even offered to get a book for her that was on the top shelf. When she sat on one of the school benches to eat a snack, a couple of strangers (schoolmates) stopped to say hi, and even sat with her.
Ryo was watching her from the back of a big tree, keeping an eye on Alice. Surprisingly, it seemed like she was going to be fine. She was even carrying her bag all by herself, which she hasn't done in…. Basically forever.
"Dude, she's going to be fine."
Ryo nearly jumped from shock, and turned around to see Subaru Mimasaka there behind him. "How the-when did you?"
"Ya looked like you was stalking someone, so I got curious," Mimasaka said. "You were sitting some ten seats away from her at the cafeteria. You were hiding behind some bookshelves in the library. When someone looked like he was about to give Alice a drink, ya got in their way and said, 'don't even think about it'."
"The Nakiris just can't accept drinks from strangers," Ryo explained. But he was more baffled about how Mimasaka caught all that-but that was probably something to be expected of the school's Perfect Tracer.
"School's been buzzing about this rumor that you two broke up," Mimasaka said. "Give the gal some space, she'll come around."
"We're not dating."
Mimasaka looked absolutely shocked. He had studied many of the promising students in Totsuki-Alice and Ryo included-and he knew they had a solid bond, one that was definitely beyond that of a boss and hired aide. They were the sort that came as a pair, one that was hard to imagine without the other. "Huh? I was sure she was yer girlfriend or somethin'."
"Girlfriend, huh," Ryo said, as if to himself. "...Beats me." Something about that word always unsettled Ryo. Alice was many things to him-his boss, rival, childhood friend, partner, a constant other half…
It was almost as if girlfriend was an insufficient way to describe it.
The school day ended without some poor sap confessing attraction to Alice-much to her disappointment. The experiment was mostly a failure, and with that Alice decided to dismiss the family chauffeur, and instead walk to the shopping district to head to her favorite cafe and get herself a treat. It had been a tiring day, carrying her own bag and all that.
She doesn't really remember the last time she had been out walking on her own-the last time was probably Denmark, before she even met Ryo. She imagined he'd already headed home, or even found Akira and Soma to annoy about cooking and food wars.
She reached the cafe, and ordered her usual, and a slice of cake. She then found a seat, and pulled out her phone. The school day was over, and perhaps it was time to call Ryo and discuss the results of this experiment.
"Hey, sweetie. This seat taken?"
Alice looked up from her phone, finding a sleazy-looking older man holding onto his cup of joe. She looked around the cafe, and noticed there were a lot of open seats. "It's not, but there's plenty of open seats out there, sir," she said, turning back to her phone.
The man ignored all the hints, pulling out the chair before Alice. "C'mon, no need to be shy, hun. I know all about highschool girls like you. Hanging out by yourself hoping a sugar daddy spots you, huh? Carrying around a luxury bag like that, I wonder who bought it for you?"
"Excuse me?!" Alice was in complete shock from the things the man was saying. He had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, and who he was talking to. The urge to whack him with said luxury bag was strong. "You have no idea-"
"Hey. You're in my way."
Alice knew that voice-and looked behind the man to see Ryo, with coffee and cake. He looked absolutely livid as he looked down on the man. "Get out of my face," Ryo said, "and leave my girlfriend alone, you dirty old bastard."
Ryo hasn't raised his voice-yet-but if looks could kill, the man would have been a mangled, bloody mess on the floor already.
The man was silent, as if sizing up Ryo. Ryo would have none of this. He put down Alice's cake and coffee on the table with a thud, and then turned to the man as he started cracking his fists. "You have five seconds to get out of here before I beat the hell out of your face. One… two…"
At the count of three, the man scurried out of the cafe ungracefully.
Ryo plopped down on the seat beside Alice with a sigh. If he had it his way, he'd have just hit the man then and there, but the other patrons of the cafe might be bothered. Quickly, he turned to Alice. "Are you okay, Miss?"
"...Yeah," Alice said, almost a whisper. She looked dazed for a moment, and Ryo wondered if she was scared. But quickly after, there was a pout on her face, and an intense look of disgust. "The nerve of that man! He thought I was out here looking for a sugar daddy! God, Ryo, I'd have slapped him with my bank account if I could! I want to call the limo and run him over with it!"
"We could arrange that if you want, miss," Ryo said, with no hint of irony in his voice. In fact, he pulled out his phone, as if to call the Nakiri family drivers.
"I'm all for it, Ryo, but that'd be a crime," Alice said, taking her caramel latte and having a sip. "But it would've been so much fun!"
Alice felt buzzed from the coffee, and to Ryo's relief, wasn't so rattled by the old man. Alice was a strong girl, who always spoke her mind and said no when she wanted to. She was no pushover, as long as there was no violence involved. She was back to her usual, chatty self quickly, going on about things she did in school today.
"But still, after all that, I haven't gotten a single confession!" Alice lamented. "All I got were some creepy guys coming up to me, I guess. So I'm at the deduction that Akira is totally in the wrong and that you're not the problem, Ryo. My god, does this mean the problem is me?!"
"Hey, Miss," Ryo suddenly said, calling on Alice's attention.
"Yes, Ryo? What is it?"
He took a long sip of his coffee before looking at her in the eyes, and then saying:
"I love you."
Alice gasped, both confused and flustered at the same time. Ryo could see her entire face turn red. It was always so easy to notice her blush, with how fair she was.
"I-You-What? Don't say such a thing with a straight face, Ryo!" Alice said, reaching out to pound her fists on his back.
Ryo turned back to his coffee, ignoring Alice's playful assault. "Now shut up about this nonsense about not getting confessed to," he said. "And don't make me do something this stupid again."
"Wait, were you really confessing to me or were you just saying that to get me to shut up?" Alice said, putting a hand on her hip. "That is cruel, Ryo! Don't play a maiden's heart like that!"
Ryo sighed. "...Think whatever you want to, Miss."
She just pouted at him with that pouty face of hers, "What is that supposed to mean? Also, is this how confessions go these days? Where are my flowers? The chocolates? Am I not even going to get some food?"
"...Your coffee's going to get cold, miss Alice."
Alice just huffed, but then she just looked up to Ryo, who was quietly drinking his coffee and looking away into the distance, as if avoiding looking at her. His face was completely red.
The social experiment succeeded, after all.